What is the meaning or charachteristics of the Tiger and Dragon in chinese martial arts?

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Member of DaJoGen MMA school under Dave Hagen and Team Chaos fight team under Denver Mangiyatan and Chris Toquero, ran out of Zanshin Martial Arts in Salem Oregon: http://www.zanshinarts.org/Home.aspx,

In Kung Fu, 'Tiger' style is so called because its an aggressive and powerful style, where the martial artist is more offensive. 'Dragon' is a pretty good style too, with high speed hand techniques a core of the system, its called 'Dragon' style because of the legends of Dragons in chinese mythology and the chain attack, coiling energy of the styles.

Thats what I found on the net anyway. If anyone thinks its inaccurate I apologize.

It really depends on what style of chinese martial arts the dragon or tiger are coming from. Within the bagua and xingyi that I train there are forms for each of these animals. Each form is representing the natural spirit of the animal. For example dragon in both xingyi and bagua both have large vertical body movements in them which are said to be representing how the dragon travels from the sea to the sky and back.Within the internal arts I have noticed that the animal 'styles' are usually shorter forms rather than the long forms that you would see in external arts. For example, in bagua we have a short form called "Fierce tiger pounces on the shoulders". This forms works on a specific skill and the mind set or intent used when applying that skill. When I was doing shaolin there were at least two different tiger forms that I can think of. In each the tiger was imitated slightly by striging with claw hands and doing a lot of feirce jumping attacks.So, the short answer to your question.Tiger: Fierce attacks that may involve, depending on which style, claw hands, flying kicks, and some fierce chin-na like tearing techniques.Dragon: Smooth yet powerful attacks that use the vertical range of motion.

_________________________
Member of DaJoGen MMA school under Dave Hagen and Team Chaos fight team under Denver Mangiyatan and Chris Toquero, ran out of Zanshin Martial Arts in Salem Oregon: http://www.zanshinarts.org/Home.aspx,

_________________________
Member of DaJoGen MMA school under Dave Hagen and Team Chaos fight team under Denver Mangiyatan and Chris Toquero, ran out of Zanshin Martial Arts in Salem Oregon: http://www.zanshinarts.org/Home.aspx,